3 November 2003
When 75% of the finalists in a national Design Awards competition hail from the one region, it is surely a sign that the region delivers creative excellence. This certainly proved to be the case at the eighth TUANZ Interactive Awards last week when Wellington businesses scooped 10 of the 14 awards up for grabs.
Wellington Companies Dominate Creative Awards
When 75% of the finalists in a national Design Awards competition hail from the one region, it is surely a sign that the region delivers creative excellence. This certainly proved to be the case at the eighth TUANZ Interactive Awards last week when Wellington businesses scooped 10 of the 14 awards up for grabs.
The Awards, run by TUANZ in association with the National College of Design Technology (Natcoll), recognise and encourage excellence in New Zealand’s interactive industry. When asked why Wellington was so strongly represented, Blair McRea, Chief Executive of Positively Wellington Business (www.smartwellington.com) suggested that part of the reason could be the emphasis that successive local Councils and PWB have placed on creating a regional environment that leads to world class creative outcomes.
This includes a “clustering” strategy that has nurtured and encourages local talent to expand internationally, and a business environment that is cost-effective, deregulated and stable. This is reinforced by the fact that 8 of the 10 Wellington winners use CityLink (www.citylink.co.nz), Wellington’s unique CBD broadband provider.
CityLink originated as a WCC economic development initiative in the mid 1990’s and although now a privately held company, still holds a strong charter to meet community broadband needs in the most cost-effective way possible. This includes such initiatives as its “flat rate” pricing for all data generated and sent around the CityLink network; a network that enables LAN-speed connectivity amongst all participants; and market-responsive Internet providers whose pricing plans enable smart digitally-based business. The major barrier that businesses perceive to effective broadband use is the ongoing traffic charges, and CityLink and its partners are overcoming this, to meet their objectives of “faster, cheaper, better” connectivity.
The latest CityLink initiative is the deployment of a public Wi-Fi network called CafeNET (www.cafenet.co.nz). This allows people to simply access the Internet for generic browsing; or more importantly, use to VPN back to their Corporate LAN – thereby enabling smart business at very high-speed from dozens of Cafés and public spaces within the CBD. All of the above initiatives have been embraced by the Wellington creative and design community; and as Selwyn Feary of Shift once said “You can walk in here (Wellington) and have CityLink up in 24 hours. We’re so bloody lucky to have it.”
Perhaps all this is why creative talent gravitates to the Capital City, enjoying both a business landscape and environment as diverse as its population; a setting perfectly suited to Wellington’s function as both a business centre and lifestyle haven.